"The Skin of our Teeth" is a hair-raising satire

Time is compressed over the ages in Thornton Wilder's satirical dramady that broke many theatrical conventions and won a Pulitzer Prize. Shown are velociraptor Danny McMillan and postal worker Brittany Danyel, David Stewart (with hat) and in back, Thom Thomas and Laura Ring.

Mary M Long

Can the human race ever get it right or get along?

It was quite the query as playwright Thornton Wilder was writing "The Skin of Our Teeth" in the early 1940's as Hitler ravaged Europe and the collateral damage from the Great Depression and WW1 still weighed upon the country.

Wilder's take on the situation premieres at Ojai ACT this Friday (Jan. 25) definitely not in an academic sense, but with a flair for drama, comedy and satire.

It follows the middle-class Antrobus Family of New Jersey over a period of thousands of years facing disasters such as war, economic hardship and nasty weather, yet escaping by the skin of their teeth. The three acts cover the Ice Age, the Great Flood and some world wars.

In the end, George Antrobus (inventor of the wheel and the alphabet) says, "Oh, I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is a struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for--whether it's a field, or a home, or a country. All I ask is the chance to build new worlds and God has always giving us that."

Director Richard Kuhlman promises "a creative night in the theater" in a play that won the Pulitzer Prize and has maintained a solid critical reputation every generation since its trial debut in New Haven in 1942 and shortly afterward on Broadway.

The New York Daily Telegraph's newspaper critic commented on the opening that, "Wilder certainly has the most vivid imagination in the theater today," and judged it to be "a perfect piece of theater."

The famed Brooks Atkinson went even further in the New York Times, asserting "it stands head and shoulders above the monotonous plane of our moribund theater—an original, gay-hearted play that is now and again profoundly moving, as a genuine comedy should be.''

"The Skin of Our Teeth" runs from Jan. 25 to Feb. 24, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays at Ojai ACT, 113 S. Montgomery St. Tickets are $18 general and $15 students, seniors and Art Center members. For reservations, call 640-8797 or go online to www.OjaiACT.org

This story is contributed by a member of the community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Ventura County Star.